Asiatic cheetahs, one of the world's most endangered animals, are forced to eat livestock in areas where their wild prey is in decline, a study has found.
An international team of scientists working in Iran investigated what the animals ate in places where game numbers had been reduced by poachers.
They found the cats had turned to hunting domestic animals because they could not survive on smaller prey.
Safeguarding the cats needs a clamp down on poaching, the scientists found.
The study is published in the Journal of Arid Environments and addresses a conflict that emerged among Iranian conservationists over the Asiatic cheetah, a subspecies of the cheetah that is "critically endangered" according to the IUCN's Red List.
Read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19705131
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